Are the feds right to let states legalize marijuana?

The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department has decided that states can let people use marijuana, license people to grow it and even allow adults to buy it in stores — as long as the drug is kept away from children, the black market and federal property.

Washington recently legalized recreational marijuana, which these people are smoking in a Seattle nightclub. (AP file photo)

The new policy comes after pot legalization votes in Washington and Colorado last fall. Under the new rules, states can adopt regulations to oversee the medical and recreational marijuana industries burgeoning across the country.

The policy change embraces what Justice Department officials called a “trust but verify” approach between the federal government and states that enact recreational drug use.

In a memo to all 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices around the country, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the federal government expects that states and local governments authorizing “marijuana-related conduct” will implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems that address the threat those state laws could pose to public health and safety.

“If state enforcement efforts are not sufficiently robust … the federal government may seek to challenge the regulatory structure itself,” the memo stated. States must ensure “that they do not undermine federal enforcement priorities,” it added.

However, the policy change is a retreat from the former position that federal law outlaws all marijuana use.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R- Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and cochairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, called the administration’s decision the latest example of selective law enforcement.

“The administration is now effectively instructing law enforcement not to prioritize the prosecution of the large-scale distribution and sale of marijuana in certain states,” Grassley said. “Apprehending and prosecuting illegal drug traffickers should always be a priority for the Department of Justice.”

Last December, President Barack Obama said it doesn’t make sense for the federal government to go after recreational drug users in a state that has legalized marijuana. Last week, the White House said that prosecution of drug traffickers remains an important priority.

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